


Time is a Flat Circle

by viceversa



Series: One Word [3]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Time is a flat circle, they're drunk and talking about Nietzsche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 08:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16869745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viceversa/pseuds/viceversa
Summary: Mulder and Scully have one too many after-work drink and talk gets real.Set in season six-ish





	Time is a Flat Circle

“Do you think that people are determined to repeat their mistakes? Their wrong moves, their painful actions? Forever and ever?”

Scully was silent for a moment, taking the half-drunken question at face value, hiding her inebriation completely - aside from a slight flush in her cheeks.

“The eternal return,” she finally replied, sans comment. 

“Scully!” Mulder perked up in the booth seat, sloshing his beer slightly in his glass. “You’ve been studying your knee-cheee!” 

Mulder’s enthusiastic but drunk pronunciation of Nietzsche barely irked Scully, but she rolled her eyes nonetheless, barely able to recall where her reply had come from. She took a second, her brain caught playing catch up. 

“Time, it says,” she started, only slurring slightly. “Time is a flat circle. It’s cyclical. Things happen again. History repeats itself.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say.” Mulder fell back into his previous slump, dejected, continuing to sip on his beer. 

Scully was silent again, distracted by the drop of alcohol that escaped the glass and ended running down Mulder’s chin, his neck, absorbing into the collar of his shirt before his slowed reflexes could catch it. 

Mulder sighed, slipping slowly into a place in his head that was shadowed by the past, the future, sometimes the present. Scully narrowed her eyes at him, refocusing.

“But, Mulder,” he looked up at her, pouting, “All of that is big, uh, big stuff. It refers to history. Big events. Wars, discrimination, economic crashes, evolution. Not single people. No, Mulder, no. People.” 

She paused here, gathering her thoughts again to really drive home the point. It helped to lean forward, toward him, capturing a hand across the sticky table and tugging him a little closer. 

“People can change.” Scully looked deep into his eyes, shifting hers back and forth between them. “People like us can always change for the better, and so can our situation, and our hopes and future and feelings. Everything.”

Scully tugged his hand again for emphasis, causing him to nod his head in complete, deep empathy – the kind of connection only forged and felt four beers deep into a late night dinner date at a bar. 

Mulder used the last of his strength to raise himself up just enough to reach her lips with his, kissing her sloppily. Scully fully committed, feeling her reciprocation with every nerve ending still responsive at the late hour and not drowned in booze.

They broke apart, panting slightly, flushed from more than just the alcohol. 

“Some things repeat, though, right? Uh, good things?” Mulder asked, leaning oddly to the left, his body language sincere. 

Scully only nodded, not needing to pause and gather her thoughts again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @starbuck09256 on tumblr for the ask!


End file.
